Hey guys! I only just realised why it took me so long to come back here - my atlas-quake account got mysteriously deleted when the new board changes were implemented, I couldn't sign in even though I knew I had the right login details...hence I didn't see the post that you tagged me in a year ago. I'm still the same God of War-loving, kilt-wearing, goat-riding Scot you all know and love, though.
Well...English person who's lived in Scotland, now lives in China but goes to University in England, and...yeah, I'm everywhere...
So, how is everyone?

Karthik! I'm absolutely fabulous, my good sir! Still working my way through University, now on the third year of my degree - tough going, but I'm getting there! Going trekking in Peru this coming summer, alongside my annual trip to China - can't wait! I've added the bass guitar to my list of musical instruments, now trying to learn guitar properly... And hoping the weather improves soon - temperatures started to rise, but then suddenly went down again, we had snow earlier this month!! How are things with you?

I have indeed, bought it on the day of release - I really like it! I love the variety of the songs, they've definitely impressed me.
Might take me a while to decide my top 5, but I'm sure I'll be able to rank them eventually...

+Best combat*
+Best puzzles
+Best platforming
+Best environments/art design ( or on par with GOWII, which was the best)
+Best items
++Best multiplayer this entire gen
=Decent bosses though felt a couple short
=Magic was just ok
=Couple hours shorter than GOWII, same as GOWI and III
-Non existent, terrible story

+Best combat*
+Best puzzles
+Best platforming
+Best environments/art design ( or on par with GOWII, which was the best)
+Best items
++Best multiplayer this entire gen
=Decent bosses though felt a couple short
=Magic was just ok
=Couple hours shorter than GOWII, same as GOWI and III
-Non existent, terrible story

I've not been able to play Ascension yet, hoping to get it over the Easter break, though.

This is Atlas/Rich by the way, just in case you were wondering - my old atlas-quake account somehow got deleted when the new board changes were implemented, so I had to create this new one. But yes I've been fine, although it's been really cold here recently. I don't think the British weather system has realised that it's Spring. This time last year we were seeing temperatures of around 70 Fahrenheit, but for the past few weeks it's been 30-40... Hoping things will pick up towards the second half of April, if not before!

So I managed to get the disk out but it seems there is no hope for revival for my PS3. So all my media, downloads and save data (except those that are on cloud) gone. Bad design on PS3's part that only the one PS3 can read its HDD content. I am planning to get the new uglier looking model which at least won't have the issue of stuck game with a broken console.

I am playing and about half way through and till now I feel its the worst GOW game yet. Not a bad game by any means but not good as other GOW games. The combat is what they have kind of screwed. Main things being input lag or intentional delay in blocking after a roll which was not there in any other GOW game and having to block and then press X to parry attacks. This has made the combat less fun to me. Also the camera is god awful in some places and loses track of Kratos a lot trying to showcase the environment when you are fighting a bunch of enemies. The other enhancement like elemental features, sub-weapons, special items magic etc. are all good. Story is meh so far.

I am playing and about half way through and till now I feel its the worst GOW game yet. Not a bad game by any means but not good as other GOW games. The combat is what they have kind of screwed. Main things being input lag or intentional delay in blocking after a roll which was not there in any other GOW game and having to block and then press X to parry attacks. This has made the combat less fun to me. Also the camera is god awful in some places and loses track of Kratos a lot trying to showcase the environment when you are fighting a bunch of enemies. The other enhancement like elemental features, sub-weapons, special items magic etc. are all good. Story is meh so far.

I am playing and about half way through and till now I feel its the worst GOW game yet. Not a bad game by any means but not good as other GOW games. The combat is what they have kind of screwed. Main things being input lag or intentional delay in blocking after a roll which was not there in any other GOW game and having to block and then press X to parry attacks. This has made the combat less fun to me. Also the camera is god awful in some places and loses track of Kratos a lot trying to showcase the environment when you are fighting a bunch of enemies. The other enhancement like elemental features, sub-weapons, special items magic etc. are all good. Story is meh so far.

Click to expand...

This post sums up my review..

It's a MP game now..

Click to expand...

Yeah I also feel the concentrated on the game engine from the MP point of view and surely in that having no lag for blocking after roll and instant parry with timed block would have created problems as people can use that easily to their advantage. This surely feels that story mode got hit due to added MP.

Yeah I also feel the concentrated on the game engine from the MP point of view and surely in that having no lag for blocking after roll and instant parry with timed block would have created problems as people can use that easily to their advantage. This surely feels that story mode got hit due to added MP.

Click to expand...

I got to the exact same conclusion. It seems they altered the SP combat in order to be consistent with the MP combat. The MP wouldn't work so well if blocking was instant and parrying didn't require the unnecessary press of the X button.

It doesn't explain why they messed up the perfect camera angles from the previous games. Too many times in Ascension, you lose track of where Kratos is while in combat. I definitely wasn't expecting this from the series, not after making what I consider the 5 best hack n slash games on the market.

The story was so lame, I just have no words.. anyway, I believe Ascension is the very first game where the addition of MP actually hurt the SP. Huge disappointment... still a good game. I simply never thought it'd be anything less than great.

It's a sad thing to say but I'm glad we pretty much agree that this is the worst of the series. Graphics aside obviously.. Taz telling me to get the fuck out kind of hurt my feels lol.

Okay first of all... holy shit these boards are bad. God damn the lay out and interface etc. Just awful on pc and mobile. Somehow worse than it was 5 or even 10 years ago... I actually remembered my password for main but I asked for a permaban 4 years ago and it appears to still stand.

Now to why I made this account.. and why I'm making this post. I can't remember which link I clicked exactly... but somehow I ended up back on this bitch for the first time in 4 years. On a whim I decided to check out my old stomping grounds, the GOW boards. I reread this thread... saw the links from DR (MU's, without my pants etc) and somehow ended up spending a couple of hours reading old classic threads.

Memories came rushing back brehs.... even though almost none of you will read this... I had to make this post as a form of catharsis.

I laughed many, many times whilst reading all that old shit. This board had some good times... it was the golden age of internet forums for me and possibly many of you. The ****ery that took place was A1. We were doing over 1k posts a week and literally 95% of them had nothing to do with GOW. It was just brehs having a good time, I swear we had the best damn community on the internets.

-Every day on MSN with the brehs
-Playing R2, LBP, Dark Souls etc
-All those contests we had. Some of those play sessions were legendary.
-Without my pants showdowns
-The epic MU's that were the GOAT on IGN.
-All of the alts. ALL OF THEM.
-The user stories that started off terrible but got a little better with each new story. I reread some of that stuff and it's bad but I'll be damned if some of those characters weren't lit af.
-The war against evil homer and his injustices against us. Deleting CT's, sending a mod to babysit us but we chased them off etc
-The banter in the ct and then Tavern of War.
-I aint never been in an online community as close and never will probably. We was straight family.. everybody knew everyone else's name.

Once again, these will fall on deaf ears.. but I will still give some shout outs on the small chance that someday.. somehow.. perhaps these people will find their way back here and see this... and they will know they were appreciated.

Shout out to @the_silent_man226 for putting so much thought and effort into every post and making everyone he replied to feel appreciated. Also most likely a serial killer.

Shout out to @dragon_rocks for dropping 1k on adopting every single person in the community. You was an OG baller. Yo real talk I carried you in R2 tho.

Shout out to @Punkonator12. I see you still here breh. Just wanna let you know I was wrong for clowning you about wrasslin. I'm back on that shit. Smackdown been lit since the brand split and my boy Strowgawd coming for the belt on trash ass raw.

Yes that was a 9 year old joke. But real shit... @ZweihanderDaBest.. since day 1 til the end, you held it down with me breh. Not just on the boards.. on MSN.. and on PSN (we must've logged 100 hours together in Dark Souls, plus LBP and R2. Shout out to a real OG.

With that.. I end this nostalgia filled trip down memory lane. Salute to all my GOW brehs. If anybody stumbles across this...thanks for the memories and I hope you're doing well.

Addendum: Ya'll may or may not remember, but I always wanted to join the Police Force. I did it brehs, been in over 2 years now.

@GhostofTDSpartan, hey man! I've been thinking about you everyday! Ok, maybe not everyday but I ain't forgot. I wasn't a part of the core, I got here pretty late but I'm proud to be included in what's likely to be your very last memoirs. This was a great place to post.. Congrats on achieving your goals! That's beast yo. I'm gonna keep it short and sweet.. without my pants